DAVAO CITY — Amid the continued killings of non-Moro indigenous peoples in Maguindanao provinces and with the recent passing into law of the Indigenous People’s Act in the Bangsamorosuperace88, leaders of Teduray and Lambangian tribes are asking the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) to issue their certificate of ancestral domain title (CADT) first before turning over their ancestral domain documents to the Bangsamoro.

Leticio Datuwata, supreme leader of the Timuay Justice and Governance, the tribes’ indigenous political structure, said once they already had the CADT, it would be much easier for the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs (MIPA) to focus on the development rights of the non-Moro IPs in the Bangsamoro.

Datuwata read the position paper during the hearing by the House committee on indigenous peoples on Monday, Feb. 3, amid the continued killings of Teduray leaders in Maguindanao provinces and the fears that their ancestral domain claim that had long been pending at the NCIP would continue to languish and may have to start all over again once its documents be turned over to the Ministry of Indigenous People’s Affairs (MIPA) as provided in the Bangsamoro IP Code.

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He also reiterated his earlier call for government action on the unabated killings of their leaders and members of the tribe, especially the protection of those who had been receiving threats; legal remedies for those seeking justice for the death of loved ones and compensation and assistance for the 3,000 tribe members who continued to be displaced by conflicts and threats to their lives.

NCIP officials said all the groundwork for the tribes’ ancestral domain claim had been done and that the NCIP en banc was about to deliberate the tribes’ ancestral domain claim when the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) issued a resolution in September 2019 stopping the process.

The Teduray-Lambangian’s ancestral domain claim covers 208,258 hectares of land spanning eight towns in Maguindanao del Sur, a part of Maguindanao del Norte; six villages in Lebak, Sultan Kudarat and 14,000 waters.

Basilan lone district Rep. Mujiv Hataman and Lawyer Benedicto Bacani, executive director of the Institute for Autonomy and Governance (IAG) had voiced out the non-Moro IPs concern that their ancestral domain claim would have to start all over again or would be denied once NCIP turned over the documents to MIPA without issuing first the CADT to the tribe.

“We invoke the completion of TLADC (Teduray-Lambangian Ancestral Domain Claim) delineation and recognition process of the NCIP before the turnover to MIPA,” Datuwata said. “We have already submitted all documents for deliberation by the NCIP en banc so we are hoping that we will finally be issued with the Certificate of Recognition or the Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title o CADT itself),” he added in Filipino.

Jenevie Cornelio, a Teduray leader, who also sits in the TJG, said they documented at least 15 non Moro IPs killed last year but all their attempts to seek witness protection from the government had been rejected. She also said that they filed police blotters in these cases but police, citing the data privacy act, refused to release a copy of the blotter even to the complainants themselves.

Datuwata also said the continued recognition of the camps claimed by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) within their ancestral domain would bring more conflict and difficulties to members of the tribe.

He clarified that Camps in Bader and Omar claimed by MILF were “areas of temporary stay” and were not part of the MILF territory. “We want to stress that these camps are ‘areas of temporary stay’ and that we expect the former combatants to return to their communities,” he said, referring to Camps Bader and Omar. “These are ‘areas of temporary stay’ and not an MILF territory,” he said.

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Datuwata said even the inclusion of the Teduray and Lambangian tribe in the camp transformation program that the government would implement in these two camps with the aid of foreign funds would not solve the problem because it would just “contribute to conflict as some people think that our ancestral domain is part of their territorysuperace88,” he explained in Tagalog.